Hans Riesen is Professor in Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics (Laser Spectroscopy) at UNSW Canberra. He has been the Associate Dean (Research) of UNSW Canberra from May 2012  to May 2020.

Professor Riesen studied at ETH Zurich and the University of Berne, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD (Dr. phil.-nat.) from the University of Berne in 1987 for research on the optical spectroscopy of exchange coupled binuclear chromium(III) complexes. From 1987 to 1998 he worked at the Research School of Chemistry of The Australian National University as a Post-doctoral Fellow, Research Fellow, ARC Research Fellow and Fellow with Professor Elmars Krausz. In 1998 he joined UNSW Canberra as a Lecturer.

Over the last 42 years, Hans Riesen's research has been mostly focused on the laser spectroscopy, e.g. spectral hole-burning, of transition metal ion doped insulators/wide band gap semiconductors. He is particularly interested in light-induced changes in the solid state that have potential applications in ultra-high density optical data storage and optical signal processing. Very recently Hans and some of his team have studied the generation of slow and fast light by transient hole-burning.

 In recent years, Hans Riesen and his team have discovered a novel X-ray storage technology with applications in personal and clinical dosimetry, and medical imaging. A UNSW spin-off company (Dosimetry & Imaging Pty Ltd) is currently in the process of commercialising this technology. More recently, related materials are pursued in a joint venture with ANU, UniSA and a Melbourne based company, for high density optical data storage. Hans Riesen is the author of over 140 journal articles in the field of laser spectroscopy of the solid state, three book chapters and  has several accepted international patents (USA, Europe and Australia).